1. Growing Up
Here’s how I became Major Tom. Dancin’ along to the golden oldies every Saturday night with my old man; my old Italian piano teacher Enzo helping me write my first song ‘Mum And Dad Superstar’; my cousin playing me ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ and smashing my eggshell mind; our Thai exchange student playing me Metallica and getting me hooked on metal; smoking my first joint and hearing ‘The Carny’ by Nick Cave.
2. Inspirations
The figure of Nick Cave looms large in my musical identity, partly because I got a Nick Cave tattoo on my chest when I was in Japan. The mystery, the sensuality, the classical allusions in the lyrics. After I mellowed out a bit and got sick of listening to Nick Cave on high rotation I discovered The Doors, who gave me tingles in all the same places!
3. Your Band
After I walked out of Little Red I didn’t know what I was going to do, so I called up the best musos I knew and asked if they wanted start a new band. I had no idea what it would sound like until we all got in a room together. I couldn’t believe my luck when we got in a room together for the first time and it rocked. It’s a swingin’ blues rock band in the classic ’70s Stones kinda way.
4. The Music You Make
We’ve just finished recording our debut LP. We recorded it ourselves in our home studio. So we’ve got no-one to blame if it sucks but ourselves! But I don’t think it does. It’s a howlin’ growlin’ brew of jungle grooves, steam-punk junkyard freak out and rock hard jail cell blues, inspired by Exile-era Stones and The Black Keys. Our live show is a frenzied orgy of honky tonk grooves and spy-chedelic shootout tunes. We got asked to play at a swingers party at our first show.
5. Music, Right Here, Right Now
It’s nice being a real indie band after being in a fake one for six years. Nothing baffles me more than the fact most of the bands at the Independent Music Awards are with record labels. There’s a really exciting indie scene in Sydney now. I don’t know what they’re calling themselves but they wear hats and they look like they’ve walked out of a prohibition-era speakeasy. I’m thinking of bands like Papa Pilko And The Bin Rats. They’ve got swing, swagger and sax appeal. Like us.
Major Tom & The Atoms play The Backroom on Friday September 6.
